Shoot Seven Work Record

Plans for the Shoot

I will take my images using my Nikon D5300 DSLR Camera and will adjust the setting for each specific situation to suit the shot I am taking. The shoot will take place at Mutts in Distress in Little Hallingbury in Hertfordshire, and I plan on taking images in the paddock, the Centres grounds, as well as in the fields and in the kennel blocks.

Julia, one of the volunteers is bringing in a dog called Rita/Woolly who she fosters at her home. Rita was brought over from a killing shelter in Romania and Julia has been taking her to training lessons and trying to socialise her. Rita has been difficult to rehome as she is showing herding instincts and nipping people in the back of the ankles to get them to move away as she is a bit nervous around them.  Julia is bringing Rita in and I plan to spend some time capturing images of the training she is doing with her in the paddock. 

I also plan to capture a landscape image taken when the sun is rising and casting long shadows. In this image I will also capture a centre worker arriving for work to show the early start they get.

If the 7 puppies arrive from Romania I will definitely be taking photos of them.

What I Hope to Achieve

I want to show the effort that the workers make in trying to get homes for the dogs. This includes the time they spend training the dogs. Julia fosters one of the dogs called Rita and is trying to use the time to train her to be better around people. She takes her to weekly training sessions with a dog trainer but also brings Rita to the paddock so that she can get used to being approached by strangers, the other volunteers take on this role. I hope to capture images of Julia as she interacts with Rita during the training. I will try to capture images that show that training is taking place and not just playing.

I hope to capture my image of the worker arriving at Mutts for work with the sun just rising and casting long shadows, this will show the early start and the long working day at the Centre. The entrance lane into Mutts is quite straight and the landscape quite pretty there and there is a wooden fence running alongside the lane. I have noticed that the fence casts a shadow that leads you right along the lane. I think this will make a good image.

If the puppies arrive I would like to capture images of them playing together, being cuddled by the staff and generally looking cute. When puppies come into the centre they are usually rehomed very quickly, often within 1 or 2 weeks. This is great but it means I will have to capture images quite quickly before they leave for their new homes.  

What I Achieved

I managed to capture images of Julia training Rita however some of them look like they are just playing together so don’t really capture what I wanted to show.  However they are still good images to show the affection that exists between the volunteers and the dogs.

Julia was training Rita to stop and lie down on her command and she has worked so well that she is being given an ear scratch as a reward. In the image Julia is kneeling down so that she is closer to Rita and able to tickle her behind her ear. The sun is rising above the trees in the background and this creates a soft glow of light around Julia’s head. This contrast in shade draws attention to the expression on Julia’s face in the image. However, the light is a little too bright and slightly makes her face a bit harder to see. It would have been a better image if I had adjusted the settings to reduce this. In the image Julia is looking at Rita with a proud and loving expression on her face, while Rita has turned her head away from the camera slightly in order to get a better ear scratch. The image would have conveyed more emotion if it could be seen that Rita was looking directly into Julia’s eyes.

I feel that I would also like to document my own interaction with the dogs at Mutts but this is difficult as I am taking the images. However I did achieve this by taking a close up image where you can see my hand opening the kennel door while Tom is inside the kennel looking straight at me and waiting for me to come in and cuddle him. I have tried to capture and focus on emotion in this image by framing Tom’s large dark soulful eyes in the rectangle created by the wire bars on the kennel door.  This focuses the viewer’s attention on them and as I am holding the camera the dog is looking directly at me and therefore making direct eye to eye contact with the viewer.

I also tried to improve this image using Photoshop to remove some of the yellowness of my sleeve and of various small yellowish regions in the wall and wire door. I felt that the colour in these regions stands out a bit in the image as the colour in the rest of the image is so neutral. I therefore wanted to remove this distraction which takes the focus away from the subject.  

I also managed to capture images of the volunteers interacting with one of the more high energy dogs Hades. In the first photo he is trying to steal the treats from Paula’s treat bag round her waist and in the other the two volunteers are working together to attach the lead onto Hades collar so he can be taken over to the paddock to get some exercise. It takes two people to do this as he jumps up and down so much. This is captured in the image as the two volunteers lean to the side and sandwich Hades between them trying to attach the lead. Hades face can be seen peeking out above a volunteer's shoulder indicating the height he stands at on his back legs.

I Photoshopped this image.



I decreased the brightness slightly of the entire image, then drastically decreased the brightness of the background. I also used colour balance to make it slightly more cool toned. These changes enable the viewer to focus more on the subjects and the task taking place as the subjects are more distinct in this image. The cooler tones also suit the emotion of the task so making it feel more harmonious and appropriate.

This image shows a person arriving for work early in the morning at Mutts. It shows a pretty country landscape with a straight lane leading into the Centre with grass on either side of the lane as well as trees on the left. On the right there is a wooden fence running along the length of the lane and the rising sun has cast a long shadow from the fence. This shadow covers the entire width of the lane and the horizontal panels in the fence create two converging lines along the length of the lane. It feels as though the morning sun is directing you to enter the centre. I positioned the worker to the right of the frame with her back to the camera as she walked along the lane, this meant that she did not obscure and interrupt the leading lines of the shadows to the viewers eye. The lines lead the viewer to a white building which is the Centres workshop and a stable behind that. The worker is wearing a thick green fleece jacket which indicates to the viewer that it is a cold morning as the sun has only just risen, and this highlights the early morning start the worker is getting. The green colour also parallels the colour of the countryside making it look like the worker belongs there giving the image a more relaxed feel which fits in with the appealing countryside landscape.

The other images I took include improving the image where the worker is burning old torn bedding in the oil drums. This image I had taken before but wanted to improve upon. I have cropped out part of the tree trunks so that they are still apparent but not so dominant. I have also changed my perspective so that the four drums are now more centralised between the trees making the image more symmetrical and harmonious. As there was an even number of drums the viewer’s eye would be naturally drawn to the middle position, which unfortunately would be empty space. Therefore I asked the worker to place the rubbish in the bin from this position. This makes the worker completing her task the centre of attention. 

The puppies arrived late in the day and were very nervous, so I only had a short period of time to take images. I was very excited and wanted to get some really special images to show how cute they were. I took the chance to try to experiment with working with light as I have seen Fan Ho do when I researched his work. He creates hi-key photographs which makes the image look over-exposed. Using this technique you lose the details of some of the elements in the image but these are the not the important ones. The main elements of the image are, in contrast, revealed more clearly and this allows the viewer to focus on them. This image is therefore high contrast as the mid tones have been lost and the subject is the focus of attention.
 

The hi-key image shows two of the puppies in their kennel. Oscar is the slightly more inquisitive one coming towards me to investigate the treat that I am holding, while Tom is hanging back unsure. They are about 14 weeks old so will be fairly large dogs when they are fully grown. also two of them are missing part of their tail. This was due to frost bite in the Romanian Centre where all the dogs are kept outside on concrete. I really like the effect of this image as it highlights the important part of the image, the puppies, making them the entire focus of the image by removing background clutter. The image captures the nervous pose of Oscar as he approaches me with his head down. It focuses the attention on the emotions they are feeling. The pups have spent little time around people so are very nervous of them. It will be part of the role of the staff at Mutts to socialise them and get them used to people so that they are successfully rehomed. 
 

What I am going to do Next

I will capture more images of the puppies as well as the other younger puppies that arrived from Romania. I particularly want to take images showing the staff interacting with them.

I want to have another try at improving the image of a dog being given its dinner through the hatch. The previous ones I have taken were much improved from my initial attempt but I want to get the dog in a perfect position. This is not something I have much control over so have to keep taking images each time Tom is being fed when I am there.

I will also take more images of the caring of the donkeys, sheep and hens as I feel most of my focus has been on the dogs.

I really liked the effect of the hi-key image but probably do not have time to take more images during the project to improve my skill. However, hopefully I will be able to create this effect using Photo-shop and images I have already taken, this would be less time consuming so is something I would like to experiment with.